P.C. scholars take Christ out of B.C.

Albany, N.Y., May 4, 2005 / 12:00 am (CNA).- The decades-old debate over whether the new terms B.C.E. (before common era) and C.E. (common era) should replace the traditional B.C. (before Christ) and A.D. (anno Domini, i.e., “in the year of the Lord”) has once again surfaced.

Educators and historians have introduced the new terms since the 1990s. Some non-Christian scholars agree with the change.

"When Jews or Muslims have to put Christ in the middle of our calendar ... that's difficult for us," said Steven M. Brown, dean of the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City.

New York’s public school students are learning the new terms through their textbooks and worksheets, but they are not part of the state's official curriculum, said Education Department spokesman Jonathan Burman.

"The standard textbooks primarily used in New York use the terms A.D. and B.C.," Burman stated.

Candace de Russy, a national writer on education and Catholic issues and a trustee for the State University of New York, doesn't believe that the new terms are neutral.

"The use of B.C.E. and C.E. is not mere verbal tweaking; rather it is integral to the leftist language police -- a concerted attack on the religious foundation of our social and political order," she told The Associated Press.

In 2000, the Southern Baptist Convention condemned the new terms as "the result of the secularization, anti-supernaturalism, religious pluralism, and political correctness pervasive in our society."